Privacy Concerns Could Limit Web Sales

Privacy concerns could have a "significant negative impact" on online shopping this holiday season, according to a survey by research firm NFO WorldGroup.

Forty-nine percent of the 1,212 consumers surveyed said that the they will limit their holiday online shopping "to some extent" because of such concerns. The top three worries of the wary online shoppers were concerns about receiving spam after purchasing a product, fear of identity theft, and the potential for credit-card information to be stolen.

The survey also shows that about one-third of respondents were less willing to buy items online from smaller, lesser-known marketers than from larger, well-known companies. And nearly half of those polled said they won’t buy online unless a site posts a privacy statement or privacy seal.